


The Scars That Define You

by Spinofflady



Series: Spider-Man [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Dogs, Drabble Collection, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Healing, Hurt, If you loved Vader in Lack of Wisdom this story is for you, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, One Shot Collection, Sequel, Service Dogs, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-24
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-05-13 08:46:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14745647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spinofflady/pseuds/Spinofflady
Summary: SEQUEL TO LACK OF WISDOM WHICH I RECOMMEND YOU READ FIRST.After his lifechanging fight with the Scorpion, Peter is trying to get used to this new way of life. Luckily, Vader is the for him every step of the way, no matter how small.





	1. Noise

It was the little things that were the worst.

Stupid stuff, that would only bother him. The things that people stared at him curiously for, that little kids pointed at and their parents told them not too. Things that he had to be accommodated for, like meeting up with friends in a tiny hole-in-the-wall coffee shop in the middle of nowhere rather than the busy, over-stimulating downtown Starbucks.

Peter had yet to figure out how this new way of living was supposed to work, and at the present it was nothing more than an organized disaster. It wasn’t like he had to suffer through the disaster alone—no, he had May, and Ned, and Mr. Stark, and now Vader, but there were times he wished he could just get away from them all and just…think. They were all ready and willing to help him, sometimes a bit too ready and willing. He needed his space, a way to escape from constant stimulation and attention.

Ever since the Scorpion and Mandy and all the other crappy things that happened, Peter had found it difficult to get enough down time. No matter how much time he spent locked up in his room with noise canceling headphones and an eye mask on, he never quite found the solitude that he needed. Mr. Stark had given him all sorts of gadgets that were supposed to help, but none of them did much good.

Peter heard everything. Every car on the street below, every words the neighbors said, every footstep in the hall, every tick of the clock…he couldn’t tune them out. The noise was always there. It was driving him crazy.

School was even worse. It had been loud before the super spider hearing, but now—oh, now it was torture. He had gotten special permission to eat his lunch in a quiet hallway or classroom rather than the cafeteria, but none of his friends could join him.

A wonderful choice: friends or keeping his sanity.

Ned would usually try to sneak out to eat lunch with his friend, and if he couldn’t Michelle would, and for that Peter was grateful, but it was still difficult being so separated from everyone else.

Peter loved people. He loved talking to them, helping them, and just being around them, so the fact that he was finding himself more and more cut off from people was extremely hard to get used to.

It was the little things, like getting to each lunch in the school cafeteria with his friends, that Peter had to miss out on.

One Thursday, Peter was attempting to enjoy lunch with his friends, deciding that no matter what, he would stay until the end of the lunch period. At first, it wasn’t so bad, but when other groups of students began to arrive, the noise slowly became unbearable.

 Peter stayed in his seat, desperately trying to tune it all out, but it was just so _loud._ His palms grew clammy and his head began to pound and suddenly…he could feel Vader’s massive body pressing up against legs and a heavy paw pushing down on his left foot.

Peter shifted in his seat, focusing as hard as he could on the weight of the dog, trying to feel every little movement Vader made. He reached under the table to stroke the sleek black coat of the German Shepherd, timing his breathing to that of the slow, even breaths of the dog.

And slowly, the cafeteria didn’t seem quite as loud anymore.


	2. 1000% Not a Date

Peter had come to discover that Michelle was different, but only around him.

At school, she was always slouched in her seat with her hands shoved into her hoodie pocket, but when she came over to his house to hang out, the hoodie came off and her smile came out. Peter never thought much of it at first—he assumed she liked being around Vader—but after a while, he slowly came to realize that the dog had nothing to do with it.

Michelle enjoyed being around _Peter._

The feeling was of course mutual, but Peter was also coming to discover that one party was slightly more mutual, and that was his party. For a while, he told himself it was nothing out of the ordinary. Michelle was fun to be around, she was nice, and Peter was glad to have her as a friend. But when Ned texted and asked to hang out when Michelle was already over, and Peter immediately replied that he was busy, he started to second guess himself.

Even May noticed the difference, and she asked him several times if there was anything going on between them. Peter had of course vehemently assured her that they were friends and nothing more than friends, but his firm resolve was fast changing. The Friday afternoon conversation only proved it further.

Ned had already been picked up, and Peter, Michelle, and Vader were sitting on a bench waiting for their rides. Actually, Peter was taking the public bus home, but he had offered to wait with Michelle until her ride showed up.

“Don’t you have your license by now?” Michelle asked, rubbing her gloved hands together for warmth. 

“Nope. I scared the DMV guy so he decided to fail me.”

“That’s discrimination, plain and simple.”

Peter shrugged. “When are you getting yours?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really need to drive anywhere yet.”

“It’s a good idea to get it anyway, if you ask me.”

“I didn’t.”

Peter chuckled. He had slowly picked up on Michelle’s exceptionally dry and sarcastic sense of humor (which he’d previously taken as insults) and he’d realized she was actually a rather funny person. Despite her quirks and aloof personality, she could be warm and friendly, especially when she was with smaller groups of people.

He caught himself looking for ways he could spend one-on-one time with her, which was exactly what he was in the middle of. He just couldn’t get enough of her.

“You free this weekend?” He blurted out suddenly, surprising himself with the puff of warm air in front of his face.

“Yeah, why?”

“I don’t know…thought maybe you’d want to see a movie or something? I know a theater that’s super cheap on Sunday mornings.” What was he doing? He didn’t even know what was playing Sunday morning.

“Well…I have been wanting to see that new thriller movie. About the girl with the spilt personalities?”

“It’s called Dissociative Identity Disorder,” Peter corrected, remember how Amanda had been thoroughly upset with the movie trailer for mislabeling the condition.  “And isn’t it a horror movie?”

“The review said it contained horror _elements_ , and that could be anything from creepy paranormal porcelain dolls to that cliché violin music in the background.”

“I hate those dolls.” Peter butt in. “It’s like they’ve got someone’s soul trapped inside them. Did you hear the story about the doll that belonged to this little girl and then she died in a train wreck and when her family was cleaning out her stuff they found the doll broken in the exact same patterns as the little girl’s injuries? They had doctors compare it and everything!”

Michelle stared at him for a moment. “You spend way too much time on the wrong side of YouTube.”

“Define wrong.”

Michelle said nothing, and simply looked at him.

“So…are we on for Sunday morning?” Peter tried, realizing he’d probably said too much about the creepy dolls.

“Answer me a question first. Is this a date?”

Peter hesitated, racking his brain for an answer as Michelle’s ride pulled up. Was this a test? Could he be honest and say that it was? Or should he just laugh and pretend she was crazy? Oh, he needed May’s advice! But he had to say something—this was getting awkward.

“It’s whatever you want it to be.” It was the first real answer that came to mind, and when he said it aloud, he thought that it was a surprisingly good answer.

“Then it is definitely, 1000%, _not_ a date,” Michelle replied with a laugh—a surprisingly disappointing answer.

* * *

May dropped Peter and Vader off at the theater a few minutes early for his “not a date” with Michelle. He stood off to the side of the ticket booth for a long while, scanning the parking lot for a sign of his friend. He waiting for at least ten minutes, texted her several times, and finally decided to buy his ticket before all the good seats were taken.

The girl at the ticket booth didn’t even bother to smile at him when he approached, but he smiled anyway and said “1 ticket for _Three._ ”

The ticket booth girl eyed Vader as she punched something into the cash register, then wordlessly took his money and handed him the ticket. Even before Peter had turned to leave, she was back on her phone.

He walked inside, glancing at the various posters while making his way to Cinema 6. He made his way through the theater, searching for a good place to sit. He froze suddenly, shocked to see Michelle waving at him from the best two seats in the house with a huge tub of popcorn in her lap. He quickly hurried over to her, squeezing past a row of people, several of whom were clearly not pleased to be sharing their movie with a dog.

Peter sat down next to Michelle, instructing Vader to lay down at his feet. “When did you get here? I texted you like…four times.”

Michelle looked at him. “I’m in a movie theater. I had my phone off.”

Peter wanted to respond, but he couldn’t think of anything worth saying. Besides, commercials were beginning to show. There was some disruption happening to the left of them, but no one seemed to care. Ten minutes of advertisements passed, and finally the movie began.

As the camera panned through an old, serene neighborhood, the narration began: “ _I dated two very different girls in high school. One was shy and the sweetest girl you’d ever meet, and the other was absolutely crazy—the life of the party. Sounds like every other guy in every other high school, huh? Here’s the catch: these two girls were the same person.”_

“That’s not at all weird,” Peter whispered over to Michelle, who instantly shushed him. She must have thought she’d been a bit harsh, because she handed him the tub of popcorn while passing a few kernels to Vader. He _loved_ popcorn.

Peter stayed quiet for a while, watching the movie and thinking about how overly narrated it was (and how strange it would be to have a girlfriend who had to different people living in her head, who didn’t even know the other personality existed.) He also had a feeling that said girl’s older brother was up to something, but he didn’t say anything to Michelle because his Spider-sense had annoying habit had a tendency to spoil movies for him. He figured she wouldn’t appreciate him sharing those spoilers.

Just as the movie was beginning to get interesting, there was more commotion on the left, and finally a theater employee was standing over them.

“Hi,” he greeted, subtly making his “manager” badge visible. “We’ve had several complaints about your dog, and unfortunately I’m going to have to ask to leave the cinema.”

Peter stared at the man, his mouth slack, racking his brain for what the complaints could _possibly_ be about.

“We’ll leave right away,” Michelle spoke up loudly, pulling her phone out of her pocket and turning it on. “Just as soon as we report you for denying access to a service dog.”

Peter’s mouth dropped even further. He and Vader had been asked to leave some places before, and he’d always obeyed simply to avoid any trouble. Michelle on the other hand seemed to _want_ trouble.

“Ma’am please,” theater guy said. “I understand that you are upset-”

“Do you understand that what you’re doing is illegal?”

People all over the theater were looking over their shoulders and shushing them, one was even taking a video of the confrontation.

“There’s a young woman over there who is allergic to dogs. Her health is in danger.”

“So is his,” Michelle snapped back, gesturing to Peter. “Her highness over there can just move to a seat farther away.”

“She’s a paying VIP member, and she reserved her seat.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Michelle said in mocking remorse. “Do you actually think I care if she wastes $45 a month to rent good seats at your theater? You are legally obligated to accommodate my friend, but if you’re so set on keeping your VIP members happy, then I’m sure we can let our lawyers hash this out instead.”

Theater guy was at this point officially _shook_ , and without another word, he headed off to speak to the young woman with dog allergies.

“Thanks Michelle, but I could have left,” Peter whispered over to her, still surprised at how fiercely she had defended him.

“No. You shouldn’t have to be inconvenienced because someone doesn’t like dogs. Now shut up and enjoy the movie already.”

Peter did enjoy the movie, but he spent the majority of it thinking about what Michelle had done for him. She hadn’t hesitated a moment to come to his aid. The more he thought about it, the more he appreciated what she’d done.

The movie ended, and Peter let Vader lick the butter out of the popcorn tub while the credits rolled. The two waited for most everyone to leave before they left the theater, hoping to avoid any more conflict.

May was waiting in her car for Peter, so he paused to bid Michelle goodbye. “Thanks for standing up for me,” he smiled, giving her a quick (and rather awkward) side hug.

“Well, you weren’t about to do it for yourself,” she shrugged. “Besides, you fight everyone else’s battles. I figured this was finally one I could fight for you. I still owe you for saving my life last year.”

Peter smiled. “I had help and you know it.”

“Yeah, but it wasn’t Amanda who jumped between me and an exploding bomb.” Michelle actually looked a little sheepish, and it was really weird, to be honest. “We should do this again sometime,” she went on, trying to recover herself.

“Yeah, definitely,” Peter agreed. “This 1000% not a date thing is pretty fun.”

“What do you mean?”

Peter’s cheeks started to burn. “Well, when I invited you to hang out, you said it was-”

“I was kidding.”

“Oh.”

There was a long pause.

“Get out of here, Parker,” Michelle smiled, playfully pushing him toward his aunt’s car. “Next time it’s 1000% a date.”

Peter thought that was the best answer he’d ever heard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Spideychelle. Just in case you hadn't noticed.
> 
> Thoughts? Leave them in the comments!
> 
> ~Spinofflady


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